• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, February 25, 2020

NBCUniversal’s new unified One Platform advertising tool will offer four types of transactions, ranging from broad buys to advanced, targeted buys, the company revealed during a press conference this morning. 

One Platform, a tool designed to enable unified, cross-platform digital and linear ad planning, buying, delivery, trafficking and measurement for all NBCU inventory, was first announced in January during CES. 

With this year’s upfront approaching, the company is now sharing more specifics about the solution. 

“One Platform represents the transformation of our business and our roadmap for the future of advertising," said Linda Yaccarino, chairman, advertising and partnerships, NBCUniversal. “It’s a major shift for this company — from how we operate to how we monetize,” she added.  

Instead of marketers having to choose between “storytelling” and premium content on one hand, and scale on the other; between targeting and reach; and between technology and safety, One Platform is designed to combine these, she said. 

The platform “allows us to redefine and scale the ad-supported ecosystem, from all of our NBCU networks and brands, to Sky, and to Peacock," Yaccarino said. “It supercharges our innovation strategy, helping us transform the viewing experience with real insights into what works. It lets us protect our partners, who trust us with their investments, and allow us to offer an all platform audience guarantee. It opens the doors to countless new partners, so we can democratize premium advertising for companies of any size.” 

NBCU has been making capital investments in new tech  capabilities and forming partnerships to drive the new solution, Yaccarino and other executives reported. 

The company expanded its advanced-advertising AdSmart suite to build on its proprietary audience graph, linear audience optimizer, and programmatic linear API. 

Now, it’s expanding its linear optimization solution to include Nielsen demo target audiences, and using technology and data science from 4C Insights to launch a cross-platform optimizer for unduplicated audience reach across linear and digital. 

With the new optimization capabilities, advertisers will be able to “easily and efficiently target all audiences across all screens,” and across NBCU’s premium content portfolio, to reach audiences at scale, according to the company. 

NBCU partnered with Operative to unify planning and produce proposals that optimize performance and investment efficiency across media. 

A partnership with Comcast-owned FreeWheel is focused on unifying and optimizing campaign scheduling and trafficking across linear, addressable and digital platforms concurrently, to enhance decision-making, pacing and delivery at scale. 

On the measurement front, NBCU will be expanding its CFlight cross-platform impression measurement system to include OTT co-viewing, out-of-home measurement, and short-form video. 

It’s also developing in-campaign and post-campaign measurement dashboards to provide marketers with “timely, consistent insights” into how data-based impressions across platforms affect outcomes. 

All four types of buys available include guarantees across audiences. 

The broad-reach option will offer a new standard for network and daypart buys across NBCU's premium video — one that goes beyond the decades-old A18-49 demo, to encompass the 211 million adults 18 and over that NBCU’s assets now reach, the company said. 

Marketers who want to reach Nielsen age and gender demographics will now be able to access NBCU’s full video platform in a single campaign, and buy across one or all screens. 

AdSmart can now execute Nielsen demo-based buys either as data-driven national TV campaigns optimized to reach a single demo across the company's linear portfolio, or as data-driven cross-platform campaigns optimized for unduplicated reach across NBCU’s linear, digital video and OTT footprint. 

Marketers looking to reach custom consumer segments will continue to have access to advanced audience targeting powered by AdSmart. 

Options include data-driven national TV campaigns optimized to reach advanced target audiences across the company's linear portfolio; precision digital campaigns with dynamic delivery; and advanced targeting across the company's premium short-form and long-form video. 

With 4C Insights, NBCU will also offer cross-platform campaigns optimized for unduplicated reach of advanced target audiences. 

In addition, marketers can make cross-platform buys of NBCU sponsorships and live events — such as coverage of the Tokyo Olympics, the 2020 presidential election and red-carpet events.